Tuscaloosa K9 Camp owner denies animal cruelty charges

Thursday

Oct 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Heather Litz doesn't deny conditions were less than ideal at Tuscaloosa K9 Camp in Berry.

By Stephanie TaylorStaff Writer | The Tuscaloosa News

Heather Litz doesn't deny conditions were less than ideal at Tuscaloosa K9 Camp in Berry.But she says she and her staff never did anything that could be described as animal abuse or neglect.Litz, her parents and another trainer were charged with 20 counts of animal cruelty last week after drug agents raided the property and seized a misdemeanor amount of marijuana and paraphernalia.Police returned the next day with a warrant to investigate animal cruelty. They seized 20 dogs that a veterinarian said were dehydrated and suffered from untreated medical conditions. The investigators contend the animals had been neglected and were in poor health.The 20 dogs were taken to Metro Animal Shelter in Tuscaloosa. Several have been claimed by owners who had taken their dogs to be trained or boarded at the facility.Around 72 dogs remain on the property. All but Litz's eight pet dogs will be placed with other rescues, said Richard White, commander of the 24th Judicial Circuit Drugs and Violent Crime Task Force. A hearing is scheduled in Fayette County District Court on Nov. 12 to determine the custody of the dogs, he said.“As long as we can establish identity, we'll release any personal dogs,” White said. “Most of the remaining dogs are rescue dogs, so none will be moved until after the court date. We're going to find other rescue organizations to take them. We'll be vetting the rescues before we release any dogs to make sure that everything is on the up and up.”Litz, who is out on bond while the other three suspects remain in the Fayette County Jail, said Wednesday she became overwhelmed when trying to help dogs that could die otherwise.“We did everything we could for them,” she said. “Yes, the facility was overcrowded and in a state of disarray, but no animal was ever neglected or, God forbid, mistreated. They were all given the best care we were able to give them.”The facility's troubles began when the 14-acre property was destroyed by the morning tornado that struck the area on April 27, 2011, Litz said. The house, kennels and a cabin on the property were destroyed. Litz suffered a concussion and other injuries, and another trainer was paralyzed after being pinned under a tree, she said.Twenty-four of the dogs were killed.“I felt like I'd failed them,” Litz said. “I felt like I'd failed them, so when people would bring a dog to my doorstop, I'd let my emotions take over and feel like I had to save them.“The overcrowding is completely my fault. But what are you supposed to do when people are dumping these animals at your door?”The camp was featured on Animal Planet's “Pit Bulls and Parolees” the next year, which Litz thought might help with donations needed to rebuild.“The opposite of what we'd hoped happened. People assumed that since we'd been on the show, we had all the help we needed,” Litz said. “People just thought, 'Now we have another place to dump dogs.' ”There were no pens, so the surviving dogs lived in the house. “It's basically a kennel. I live in a kennel,” she said. “But there's no money for repairs when I could buy so much dog food with that money.”The facility does receive donations, she said, which is used for food and the vet bills that she described as “astronomical.”Drug warrant servedLitz was feeding the dogs when members of the 24th Judicial Task Force came to the house to serve the drug warrant last Wednesday. One agent shot her Boston terrier, who ran out the front door into the yard. She was reluctant to discuss it because she doesn't want to give the impression that she is trying to gain sympathy or deflect attention from the charges against her.Her attorney, Jim Standridge of Tuscaloosa, advised her not to discuss the drug charges.The four occupants were immediately taken to jail, and volunteers weren't allowed on the property, she said.“No one returned for around 30 hours,” she said. “When I left, they had clean kennels, had blankets and had been fed. Yes, after 30 hours some dogs will suffer from mild dehydration. Some will be in dirty kennels. They took 20, but the other 100 were in excellent condition. They're healthy, they're happy.”She said that some of the 20 dogs that were seized were in bad shape when they were brought to the camp. All of the ones with problems were on medication, she said.Two had been there for less than a week. One puppy came in with hereditary mange, she said, and was being treated with medication. A black Lab named Jake had been left there just 72 hours before.“He was in fairly desperate condition when we got him. We started him on worming medication, and he was eating and drinking, but not in good shape,” she said.Three of the dogs were chronically thin, she said. Another dog, Gideon, arrived at the camp months ago with heart worms, pneumonia and fluid in his stomach. It's taken weeks to get him as healthy as he was when examined last week, Litz said.Uncertain futureLitz said she was a dog walker and pet-sitter as a teenager and later worked as a veterinary assistant. She graduated from the Tom Rose School as a Certified Master Dog Trainer before moving here and starting the camp, where she says she and her staff trained rescue dogs for service and police work.“My mission was not just to train dogs to make big money, but to rehabilitate the ones who get forgotten. The ones you drive by and pretend you didn't see on the side of the road, the ones who were taken to the shelter because of bad behavior,” she said. “When we started, we had just 20 rescues. We were never supposed to be a high-volume rescue. We just became vastly overwhelmed.“Our main goal now is to get them all placed safely into rescues, have them live happily ever after and give us a chance to mend and rebuild this place, and maybe at some point long into the future decide what our role in rescue is. We would love to start training dogs. We would love for people to trust us with their animals. I don't know if we'll be able to get that back.”